disjunctive

American  

[dis-juhngk-tiv] / dɪsˈdʒʌŋk tɪv /

adjective

1. serving or tending to disjoin; separating; dividing; distinguishing.

2. Grammar.

   1. syntactically setting two or more expressions in opposition to each other, as but in poor but happy, or expressing an alternative, as or in this or that.

   2. not syntactically dependent upon some particular expression.

3. Logic.

   1. characterizing propositions that are disjunctions.

   2. (of a syllogism) containing at least one disjunctive proposition as a premise.

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noun

1. a statement, course of action, etc., involving alternatives.

2. Logic. disjunction.

3. Grammar. a disjunctive word.

disjunctive British  

/ dɪsˈdʒʌŋktɪv /

adjective

1. serving to disconnect or separate

2. grammar

   1. denoting a word, esp a conjunction, that serves to express opposition or contrast: but in the sentence She was poor but she was honest

   2. denoting an inflection of pronouns in some languages that is used alone or after a preposition, such as moi in French

3. Also: alternative. logic relating to, characterized by, or containing disjunction

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noun

1. grammar

   1. a disjunctive word, esp a conjunction

   2. a disjunctive pronoun

2. logic a disjunctive proposition; disjunction

Other Word Forms

• nondisjunctive
  adjective
• disjunctively
  adverb
• nondisjunctively
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of disjunctive

1400–50; late Middle English < Late Latin disjunctīvus placed in opposition, equivalent to Latin disjunct ( us ) ( see disjunct) + -īvus -ive

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

disjunctive

In those earliest works using magazine transfers, Cowin layered disjunctive images, visually uniting realities that can’t easily be reconciled emotionally.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

The form itself looks like a good argument—a form of disjunctive syllogism.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

After finishing its last page, he is heard to murmur: “So elementary … inchoate … a disjunctive … patchwork.”

From Washington Post ● Mar. 23, 2022

But in Vice, the storytelling becomes even more disjunctive, more “multimedia,” more bluntly polemical, and more playfully perverse.

From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2018

We may think or act, though this disjunctive is wrong, wholly wrong.

From A Hero and Some Other Folks by William A. (William Alfred) Quayle

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